Introduction to Western Literature and Arts
2nd Semester, 1999
Instructor: Chen Chi-szu
Office: T617, Phone: 2621-5656 ext-2966
Email: kiss7445@ntmail.tku.edu.tw
Homepage: http://mail.tku.edu.tw/kiss7445
Syllabus:
A hyper-text version of this syllabus is available on my website.
http://mail.tku.edu.tw/kiss7445/KissHomePage/Literature_Arts/Lit98S2.htm
Wk Date
Arts & Music
1
2/25
2
3/04 U-8: High Middle Age
Arts: The Gothic Style
Religious music: “organum”
Secular music: troubadours,
minnesingers
3
3/11 U-9: 14th Century:
Arts: Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto, Limbourg
Literary Texts
Activity
St. Francis of Assisi: “The Canticle of
* Gregorian Chant
Brother Sun”
*Carl Orff: Carmina
Dante Alighieri: from The Divine
Burana
Comedy 360-376
*: Machaut‘s music
*Petroarch: Sonnets
Boccocio’s Decameron , 422-24
Brothers, Late Gothic Architecture
Music: Ars Nova
4
3/18 U10: Early Renaissance:
Arts: Masaccio, Jan Van Eyck, Fra Angelico,
Uccelo,
Botticelli, Gozzoli, Leonardo ,
Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Michaelangelo
U-9: 14th Century:
Chaucer: “General Prologue”
and “The
Prologue of the Wife of Bath’s Tale”,
The Canterbury Tales. 424-438
Music: Dufay
5
6
3/25 U11: High Renaissance:
U-10: Early Renaissance
Raphael, Michaelangelo, Giogione,
Machiavelli: from The Prince 35-38
Titian
Erasmus: from The Praise of Folly 38-43
4/01 U11: Mannerism:
Michaelangelo, Tintoretto, Pontormo,
Montaigne, “Of Cannibals”
Shakespeare:* Sonnets (Norton)
Parmigianio
7
4/08 U12: Northern Renaissance:
Dürer, Holbein, Grünewald, Altdorfer,
Bosch, Bruegel
Shakespeare: from Hamlet, monologues
Renaissance Music
8
9
10
4/15
4/22
4/29 U13: Baroque:
Review
Mid-term Exam
Crashaw, “On the Wounds of Our Crucified Lord,”
Bach
Arts: Caravaggio, Gentileschi, Carracci, John Donne, “The Canonization”
11
Pussin, Laurrain, Bernini
*from Gracian’s The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Music: Handel, Vivaldi, Bach
*from de la Rochefoucauld’s Maxims
5/06 U13: Baroque:
Handel
Cervantes:Don Quixote, Part II, Ch 10 and
Arts: El Greco, Velazquez
Ch 11,
222-228
Vermeer, Rubens, Rembrandt
12
5/13 U14: Rococo
Voltaire: Candide, I-V, VIII, XXVIII-XXX,
Hyden
Arts:Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard,
277-91
Mozart
David,
Pope, “Essay on Man,” Epistle 1. 269-71
Classic Music: Hyden, Mozart,
Swift, “A Modest Proposal, 271-74”
Beethoven
13
5/20
U15: Romanticism and Social Reform:
Marx and Engels: from The Communist
Arts:Goya, Delacroix, Ingres, Courbert
Instrumental Music: Beethoven,
Manifesto 333-335
Brahms, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin,
338-343
Schubert
Tolstoy: “The Three Hermits” 343-345
Beethoven
Chopin
Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist, ch 1, 2,
Poe: “The Oval Portrait” 345-46
14
15
5/27
U15: Romanticism and Nature: Arts:
Shelley: “To------”, 336
Canstanble, Tuner, Friedrich
Keats: “Ode to a Nightingale”, 336
Opera: Verdi, Wagner
Emily Dickinson: poems 125, 258, (p349
6/03 U16: Impressionism:
Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas
Wagner
Chekov: “The Bet”, 389-391
Debusy
Kate Chopin, “The Story of an
Hour”394-396
16
6/10 U16: Post-impressionism
Pointillism: Seurat
Ibsen: A Doll’s House, Act III. final
Turn in personal
scene, 392-395
report
Symbolism: Gauguin
Expressionism: Van Gogh, Munch
Fauvism: Matisse
Cezanne
17
18
6/17
6/24
Review
Final Exam
Turn in group report
Course Description:
In this semester, the course is designed as a brief tour (journey maybe) to the western key cultural
heritage, from the Middle Age to early 20th Century. Generally, there are three sessions in each meeting.
Firstly, in the lecture session, we will appreciate some representative art works, and from this we try to
understand the visual representation or presentation of the epoch. (We may listen to one or two musical
pieces in each period, if we have enough time and space.) Secondly, in the guide-reading session, we
will read together some key texts and try to understand the spirit of its epoch--what the artists care and
how they think and create at that time. Then, the class is divided into groups for discussion.
Requirement:
The students are divided into group to read and investigate in depth on focused topic. Every student
should present a 1500-words written report on one given topic which relates to the topic of the group,
and hand in the report before June 10. The group report has to be turned in before June 17.
Grading: Mid-term (30%) + Final (30%) + Personal Report (10%) + Group Presentation (20%)
+ Attendance (10%)
Topics for Group Presentation
Each group can come to my office to discuss what to do and how to do your presentation--on reserve.
The personal report should be handed in before June 10 (6/103). The dead line of the group report is
June 17 (6/17).
G1 : Make a table about the style of the Medieval Age
Architecture: The Gothic Cathedral
Arts: The Byzantine mosaic painting, the illuminated book
Music: The Gregorian Chant
Literature: Dante's Divine Comedy
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Morality Play: Every Man
Romance:
G2: Illustration of Renaissance Perspective
I. What is perspective?
1. Perspective in arts
2. Perspective in literature
II. early approaches: Egypt, Greek, Medieval
III. The invention of Perspective
1. Alberti' theory of perspective
2. Masaccio's Trinity
3. Leonardo's The Last Supper
4. Durer's perspective aids and his works
IV. Literature:
G3 : A detailed illustration of Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel fresco.
I. An illlustration of the plane design and the correspondent biblical stories
Is Michaelangelo faithful to the biblical text? How does he interpret the biblical text.
II. The change of style in The Creation and Last Judgement
G4: Illustration of the Renaissance in the North
I. Detailed analysis of the works of the following painters:
Durer, Holbein, Grunewald, Bosch, Bruegel
G5 : Illustration of Mannerism in Arts and Literature
I. Arts: Michaelangelo, Tintoretto, Pontormo, Parmiginino
II. Literature
1. Drama: Shakespeare's Hamlet
2. Essay: Montaigne's Essays
3. Poetry: Andrew Marvell, John Donne, and other Metaphysical poets
G6 : Baroque Literature and Arts
I. Detailed analysis of the following paintings
I. Anamorphosis: Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors
2. Multiple references: Velazquez's Las Meninas
3. Gentileschi's Judith and Holofernes
II. Detailed analysis of the works of the following authors:
1. John Donne's poetry
2. De La Rochefoucauld, Maxims
3. Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom [智慧書],
or A Pocket Mirror for Heroes [英雄寶鏡]
G7 : Romanticism in 19th Century Literature and Arts
I. Detailed analysis of the works of the following painters
1. How the artists look at society: Goya, Gericault, Delacroix, Courbet,
2. How the artists look at Nature: Constable, Frederick, Turner
II. Detailed analysis of the works of the following authors:
Gothe, Shelley, Keats, Blake, Emily Dickinsons:
G8 : Impressionism in arts and literature
I. Detailed analysis of the works of the following painters:
Male: Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas
Female: Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot
II. Detailed analysis of the works of the following authors:
Chekov, Turgnev, Virginia Woolf
G9 : Symbolism:
I. Detailed analysis of the works of the following painters:
Gaugain, Maureau, The Pre-Raphaelites
II. Literature: Poe's poetry, stories, Chekov's stories and dramas
Ibsen's A Doll's House
G10 : Expressionism:
I. Arts: Van Gogh, Munch, The German Expressionists
II. Film: Robert Wiene's
III. Literature: Kafka's “Metamorphosis,” Gogol's "The Overcoat"